Hands on Election Day

Georgia State University College of Law students put their studies into action last election day by volunteering for voter protection organizations.

Assistant professor Anne Tucker organized an information session at the college where students learned about volunteering and registered for poll monitoring training.

“It’s a great opportunity for students, regardless of your political persuasion, to really see how the election process is a function of the rule of law,” Tucker says. “Lawyers have a unique role in protecting that and ensuring that people are informed about their rights.”

Student Max Holland (J.D. ’13) spent Nov. 6 working for Election Protection, a national nonpartisan election monitoring organization. A Democrat, he decided he could be more effective working for a nonpartisan cause.

“In a place like Georgia, it’s more important to have people be enfranchised and understand their rights than have a partisan goal in mind,” Holland says.

As an Election Protection volunteer, Holland spent the morning serving as a poll monitor in Clayton County. Monitors must remain 150 feet away from polling locations, so he was stationed outside in the rain to answer questions, help people who were turned away at the polls and ensure the process was running properly.

In the afternoon and evening, he worked at an election hotline call center set up in an Atlanta law office. Prior to Election Day, Holland attended a training session that covered volunteer roles, frequently asked questions and key voting laws and statutes.

“It should be the duty of any person who’s entering the legal field to take part in the legislative process,” Holland says.